HNIC Star Selector - Game 2 - Penguins vs Lightning

The Wall and the No Call

Marc-Andre Fleury is freakin sick! With the majority of pre series Penguins hype centered around Crosby & Malkin's injuries and questions around who will provide an offensive spark the Stanley Cup winning goalie made a statement in game 1. The 26 year old posted his 5th career post season shutout shutting down the Lightning snipers with many acrobatic saves. Lightning fans have every reason to be concerned as I am not sure they are a team that can rise above a frustrating game like that one.

And the Lightning should be frustrated, especially with the officiating. With 6 penalties against and several of them 'light' calls, you might wonder what could have been. Then there was the obvious non call, where Michalek swung his stick around and smashed St. Louis in the mouth. Never one to say what if, but you have to wonder in a 0-0 close game how a 5 minutes major could have jump started the Lightning... but the game is the game and root canal is root canal. Just ask Martin St. Louis who immediately made the post game trip to the dentist chair to repair his two front teeth.

This is one of the greatest saves
in the last 10 years

With the 1st night of games under our belts and a big prize of a Euro NHL trip on the line, Star Selectors brought their A-game. A major shout out to @yokobird with a solid 742 which is a good number, but will it last? I am never one for captaining a goalie, but Fleury made me eat my words, as he was huge with 410 total captained points. Orpik put up some solid points as well, the empty netter helped with shout outs going to Kovalev, Brewer and Malone.

Game 2

Both goalies looked strong and like lemmings I am sure our Star Selectors will captain Fleury faster than a Shea Weber clapper. It may be a case of, you better follow suit or you could be left out. But that isn't really our style. The players that stood out to us and could have a serious impact would be:

1) Jordan Staal, he was the monster with no goals. He will go off in this series and Game 2 could be the stage.

2) Ryan Malone, he had 4 shots on net and was not a minus. He had 2 big chances and seemed to be driving the net well.

3) Kris Letang, he played a tone of minutes, had 4 shots, an assist, he could be the top point man in this series and should be started, if not captained in game 2.

4) Alexi Kovalev, the more you hate him the lazier he gets and the more goals he scores. Put your heart away and pick with your head cause he is in the right spot a lot of the time.

5) Victor Hedman, he was a minus 1 but had 5 shots and plays the PP. A bit of a long shot but could be a sleeper?